The present invention relates to an ink bottle for storing ink for use in image recording apparatus such as an ink jet printer, and for recharging ink when the ink bottle is attached to the recording apparatus.
An ink jet printer is known in which monochromatic ink for monochromatic recording, or multicolor ink for color recording is selectively ejected onto a recording medium (paper, film, fabric, nonwoven fabric, OHP sheet, and the like), so that an image is formed on the recording medium. This type of apparatus includes a carriage with only recording means (a recording head), or the recording means and a small ink tank mounted thereon, conveying means for conveying the recording medium, and control means for controlling the movement of these and other constituting components. In this apparatus, during recording, while conveying of the recording medium is stopped, the recording head serially scans in a direction (main scanning direction) crossing at right angles to a conveying direction of the recording medium (sub scanning direction), so that recording is made in a width direction of the recording medium. During non-recording, the recording medium is intermittently conveyed by an amount equal to a recording width for the next recording. The recording head is so constructed that, a large number of nozzles having ejection ports, arranged in at least one row in the sub scanning direction, for ejecting ink droplets are integrally constituted. When the recording head scans the recording medium once, recording is made in the width corresponding to the number of nozzles, and a high-speed recording operation can be achieved.
In the ink jet printer for the color recording, a plurality of colors of ink droplets ejected from a plurality of recording heads are overlapped, so that desired colors of dots are formed thereby forming a color image. In general, for the color recording, four recording heads for inks of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow, six recording heads additionally including light-color inks such as light cyan ink and light magenta ink, or eight recording heads further including special color inks are used. With the use of such recording heads, an apparatus in which a full-color image can be formed is brought to practical use at present.
In many of the ink jet printers constituted as described above, a large sized image is continuously recorded over a long time, and an ink consumption amount is therefore large. A large format type is known in which the recording medium having a large size such as A1 or A0 is subjected to printing. In this type of ink jet printer, the amount of ink consumed is large, and continuous recording is usually performed for extended periods of time. In this case, a large-capacity ink bottle is necessary, separated from a small ink tank mounted on the carriage in such a manner that the ink tank moves together with the recording head. The large-capacity ink bottle is detachably attached to a bottle holder which is disposed on a fixed member (immobile member) such as a printer frame. The recording head is replenished with ink in the attached ink bottle directly through a tube or via the small ink tank. When a predetermined or greater amount of ink in the ink bottle is used, the ink bottle is removed from the bottle holder, a new ink bottle filled with ink is attached to the bottle holder, and thereby the recording head can continuously be replenished with ink.
From a viewpoint of user-friendliness, it is preferable that the ink bottle having various capacities such as 250 ml, 500 ml, and 1000 ml can be used for the same recording apparatus in accordance with a user""s use mode.
An object of the present invention is to develop a technique which satisfies the aforementioned demand, and provides a suitable ink bottle.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a second ink bottle set to be lower than a first ink bottle which is detachably attached to a bottle holder of an ink jet printer and which includes an outflow port connected to an inflow port of the bottle holder when the first ink bottle is attached to the bottle holder, the second ink bottle comprising:
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.